to be familiar with and use the light microscope

• 1 - plug in the mircoscope
• 2 - place a slide on the stage and clip in place. Ensure the part of the slide with the specimen to be examined is the centre of the hole in the stage
• 3 - turn the smallest (lowest powered) lens into line with the barrel
• 4 - while looking from the side using the coarse wheel focus lower the lens down towards the stage so that the lens is as close to the slide as possible
• 5 - look down the eyepiece and slowly turn the coarse wheel focus until an image starts to come into focus
• 6 - turn the fine wheel to focus the image clearly
• 7 - to magnify the image more, turn the next size into position. If the image is not clear use the fine focus wheel to refocus
• 8 - to view the image with the highest power objective lens the stage may first have to be lowered using the coarse wheel focus
• 9 - when you have finished viewing the specimen don't remove the slide with the highest power lens in place - you should first move to the lowest power lens and lower the stage with the coarse wheel focus - this prevents any damage to the slide or the objective lenses
• 10 - the diaphragm can be adjusted to find the best brightness and contrast for the specimen